Boy seen as capable of killings

The grandparents of a young Arizona boy charged in the shooting deaths of his father and another man told police that the 8-year-old was capable of the crimes.

In documents released Wednesday by the Apache County prosecutor’s office, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said that Liz Romero, also known as Liz Castillo, shouted out angrily when she was told the boy would be arrested in the Nov. 5 killings.

“I knew this would happen,” she said. “They were too hard on [the boy]. I knew [the boy] did it. He spent the night in my bed cuddling up to me. I had a feeling he did it. If any 8-year-old boy is capable of doing this, it’s [him].”

The boy’s grandfather, Leroy Romero, echoed the statement and pushed his ex-wife to tell police more, but Melnick said she was overcome with emotion and the officers were asked to leave.

Police have said the boy planned and methodically carried out the killings of his father, 29-year-old Vincent Romero, and 39-year-old Timothy Romans, who rented a room in the family’s two-story home in the small eastern Arizona community of St. Johns.

A status conference in the case is scheduled Dec. 8.

In a police interview released last week, the boy said he had been spanked five times the night before the shootings because he did not bring home some papers from school. The boy told a state Child Protective Services worker that his 1,000th spanking would be his last, according to the documents released Wednesday.

In an affidavit for a search warrant, Sgt. Lucas Rodriguez wrote that the boy tallied the spankings on a piece of paper.

The boy’s defense attorney, Benjamin Brewer, said Wednesday that the boy’s grandmother probably was stressed and that he planned to interview her.

In the documents, officers describe a quiet boy, who initially was not considered a suspect in the case.

In the police interview, the boy admitted to firing at least two shots at each of the men, officers said.

Documents show that Romero was shot four times and Romans six times.